


To Make Our Own Future

by AgentMaryMargaretSkitz



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, History, Time Travel, Timeless AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-14
Updated: 2019-05-14
Packaged: 2020-03-05 10:03:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,443
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18826441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz/pseuds/AgentMaryMargaretSkitz
Summary: A Darhkatom Timeless AU where Ray is a history professor tasked to go after Nora Darhk, a fugitive now in possession of a stolen time machine.





	To Make Our Own Future

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MrsNoraPalmer](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrsNoraPalmer/gifts).



> Happy Birthday to MrsNoraPalmer!!! I hope you have a wonderful day!
> 
> I've wanted to do a Timeless AU for Legends for ages, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally do so!

“You sure you can trust that book?”

Nora Darhk nodded her head and closed the journal. She had lost count of the times she had read over it since that night in the bar. There were things in there that she was going to have a hard time doing. But after a lifetime of being brainwashed, it was time to make things right. If things worked out, everything she’d do in the coming months would be worth it in the end.

Her fingers ran over the golden initials on the cover. RP.

* * *

 

               When Ray Palmer answered the door to the Homeland Security agent in the middle of the night, he did not realize that his life was going to change drastically. He had thought the most exciting point of his evening was having a beer with Sydney in the kitchen while lamenting being passed up on tenure and how he felt like he was letting their father down. David Palmer had encouraged his sons to live up to his legacy before the tumors had been discovered and Sydney left the hospital to take care of him in the last few months. That had left Ray to carry on the family legacy at the university’s history department.

“You can always quit and go somewhere where people want you,” Sydney suggested.

“Uh-uh,” Ray shook his head. “Dad built the department. There’s no way I can leave it after working towards this my entire life. I can’t just throw my future away like that.”

“Quit worrying about disappointing Dad,” Sydney said. “Grow a backbone and make your own future.”

The words were meant to be comforting. His brother’s advice always was given with a barbed edge. It was Sydney taking after their father, whose high expectations sometimes warred with loving his sons. But as inspirational as the words were, Ray still didn’t want to let people down.

 Ray was checking on David and looking at the picture of the Palmer men at their high school graduation. His dad was asleep as he usually was when the doorbell rang. Ray had gotten up to answer the door and was told that he needed to come with the agent immediately. Sydney had tried to get the agent to spill what was happening, but to no avail. Ray agreed to go and promised Sydney he’d be back as soon as he could.

* * *

 

               They took him to Stein Industries and had him sit in a waiting room. A woman with dark hair split by a blond highlighted curl was lounging nearby. She seemed tired as she told him she didn’t know why she was here either. The next person who entered the room, Agent West, introduced the woman as Kendra Saunders, a soldier who belonged to some sort of special forces unit. Ray and Kendra were then brought to a conference room and the rest was explained.

“Nora Darhk,” Agent West explained, pulling up a photograph on the computer with a list of information beside it. “Former NSA asset until a few months ago. Now she’s wanted for killing her parents a year ago. This is the first we’ve heard of her since then.”

Agent West pulled up a security video. Ray watched as Nora climbed the ladder to some sort of massive orb, a gun brandished in her hand. She stared at the camera before climbing inside an opening. Moments later, the orb sucked itself out of existence.

“What…what was that?” Ray asked as Kendra frowned and leaned forward.

               Martin Stein, owner of Stein Industries, made his entrance then and explained to him and Kendra that time could be bent back into a loop to send someone back to an earlier point. He was actually talking about time travel and had made a time machine without telling the government. To be more accurate, two had been made and Nora Darhk had stolen one of them. Luckily, the prototype, the Lifeboat, was still around and could be used to go after Nora and figure out what her intentions were.

“We want you to travel to this date and figure out why he’s there,” Agent West said as the Lifeboat was lowered into place before their eyes. “May 6, 1937, and an address for a tavern in Manhattan. Mean anything to you, Dr. Palmer?”

“The Hindenburg,” Ray answered automatically. “So Nora actually went back there?”

“Yes, and if she changes history, time and reality change too,” Stein told him. “Dr. Palmer, we need you to help bring Ms. Darhk down.”

“Why me? There’s tons of other history professors out there?”

“You’re world class, one of the best,” Agent West said. “You know local customs, you can blend in, and you still know what the outcomes should be. But I would think someone who loves history so much would do anything to save it.”

“And you can’t tell me you’re not a little bit curious about how this works?” Kendra added with a grin.

Sydney’s words came back to him. _Make your own future_.

Ray sighed and nodded. “Let’s go save history.”

* * *

 

               A young engineer for SI named Jax was the pilot for him and Kendra back to the time period. After taking a few minutes to gape around in shock and awe that they were in the past, the newly formed trio began to make their way into town. Kendra and Jax had to wait outside after getting too much attention in the bar, leaving Ray to work on his own. However, Ray found journalist Joe Boardman leaving and they managed to get him to talk with them. Boardman had seen Nora from the picture they’d been given from the security footage and informed them that she had been in the bar dressed as a man. She’d volunteered for ground crew duty to help bring down the Hindenburg.

               Thanking Boardman, they hurried to the landing field. Ray managed to get people looking for Nora with the lie that she was an infected patient that needed to be returned to the hospital, but she was nowhere to be found. He was so focused on finding her that he didn’t notice the airship landing until he heard the applause. Confused, Ray looked and saw not a zeppelin bursting into flames, but whole with people exiting it unscathed.

Nora had changed history not to make the Hindenburg explode, but to land safely.

Ray turned around, looking for Kendra or Jax before spotting a flash of dark hair slipping into a hanger. He took off after it, which was probably stupid given he was unarmed and she was dangerous. As soon as he entered the hanger, someone grabbed him from behind and forced him down onto his knees. Nora Darhk was standing away from him with another woman.

“She wants to speak to you,” the deep voice said in his ear. “If you cause any trouble, I’ll shoot you.”

Ray nodded before he was hoisted to his feet. Suddenly the grip released and then a man fell down next to him. Nora’s eyes widened before she and the other woman took off running. Ray started to run after her until Jax shouted out his name. Spinning around, he saw the engineer limping towards him with Kendra, who had a gun.

“Did she hurt you?” Kendra asked as Jax shut the door of the hanger so no one saw the body. “Are you okay?”

“She didn’t hurt me,” Ray shook his head. “But she just changed history.”

* * *

 

               In the hanger, Jax found a radio on the man Kendra had shot and started working on trying to rewire it to get in touch with Nora. Ray managed to figure out that Nora had stopped the Hindenburg from blowing up by getting the ground crew to carry the ropes instead of dragging them through the mud. After Jax discovered the radio’s insides had been gutted and replaced with something else, Kendra realized that it was now the detonator of a bomb and that Nora was still likely planning to blow up the Hindenburg. She’d kept the paper they’d gotten earlier with Joe Boardman’s article and found out the Hindenburg was flying back to Europe with a new passenger list. Among them were key historical figures that Ray recognized and knew whose deaths would severely impact history in the coming years.

“She didn’t want to blow it up when it landed,” Ray murmured. “Nora’s going to blow it up when it leaves. Why is she doing this?”

“Her parents were involved in the government and she killed them,” Kendra reminded him. “Maybe she’s working to take out more people in government in the past to ruin the future?”

“There has to be something more to it though, right?” Ray asked them. “There’re got to be.”

“Not always,” Kendra shook her head.

Before Ray could respond, police were suddenly swarming the hanger, putting the three of them under arrest.

* * *

 

               Getting out of prison was not easy, but Jax managed to make a good enough speech about how the world would change that gave Kendra the time she needed to open the cell and take out the cops with their help. From there, they had to steal a car and drive back to the airfield and get back on the ship. They ran into Joe Boardman again, who nearly turned them in until they told him about the bomb. He then agreed to help them, admitting he’d seen Nora come from the kitchen. By the time they found it, the Hindenburg was back in the air.

               Kendra and Joe stayed behind to defuse the bomb while Ray and Jax headed to the cabin to get the airship turned around. Ray fabricated a lie that they belonged to the Anarchist Black Cross and that they would detonate a bomb on the ship unless it was turned around. Their strategy worked well and the ship began to land again. However, just as they were about to touch ground, an explosion rocked the cabin and Jax started pushing him towards an exit.

               The jump down to the ground wasn’t very far thankfully. As he picked himself up from the grass, Ray looked around him. People were on the ground, screaming out for help. Others were running from the flames. Some were disoriented, staring at the burning wreck. Officers were doing what they could. This was history that he was witnessing in its raw state. Watching it play out was even more horrific than he’d imagined when he’d studied it.

Ray did what he could to help people before Nora Darhk suddenly appeared in his path.

“You and I have to talk,” she said, the gun in her hand glinting in the light of the blazing Hindenburg. “I need you to understand who and what you’re dealing with.”

Ray took a step forward. “I’m trying to figure this all out, Nora. I can call you Nora, right?”

The corner of her lips quirked for a moment. “You can call me, Nora, Ray.”

“How do you know my name?”

“I’ve learned a lot about you,” she explained. “The woman you call your mother is dead. You believe that you’re meant to be a historian just like your father, except you never really wanted that. You wanted to be a scientist.”

Despite the heat from the flames, Ray felt cold. He’d only ever told Sydney that, and there was no way his brother was working with this woman.

“I know that because of this,” Nora held up a journal and opened it for him to see.

Ray looked down at the pages, reading his own handwriting discussing the moon landing. “I didn’t write that…”

“Maybe not yet,” Nora closed the book. “But one day you will. Trust me, Ray.”

“Trust you?” Ray turned to the wreckage behind them. “Where we’re standing right now…I’m not sure if I can. Why should I even believe you? You stole a time machine, you murdered your parents! If you give me one good reason, I’ll talk with you and try to figure this out.”

“I didn’t murder my parents,” Nora snapped. “It was Rittenhouse. They betrayed me and my family.”

Ray frowned. “What?”

“When you get back, ask them why they really chose you,” Nora said. “And ask them what Rittenhouse is.”

“Why can’t you tell me that now?”

“Because that’s not how you-”

Nora looked up sharply and spun him around. Once again, he was forced onto his knees as Nora pointed the gun at Kendra, whose own gun was aimed at Nora. The fugitive told the soldier that she wouldn’t be able to take the shot. When Kendra did, it hit Nora in the shoulder. Nora fired back, but Kendra ducked and the bullet hit Joe Boardman instead.

Ray and Kendra ran over to him while Nora made her escape. They tried to keep Joe alive, but the bullet was too deep, and Kendra watched the man who looked like her dead husband perish before her eyes.

* * *

 

               When they got back to present, history had indeed changed. According to Martin Stein and Agent West, the Hindenburg now exploded on May 7 in the early hours of the morning. Three members of the Anarchist Black Cross had bombed it and had never been brought to justice. Joe Boardman and one of Nora’s lackies had been the only two casualties. Nora was still at large.

“Why did you choose me?” he asked, remembering Nora’s words to him once he explained that he’d talked with her after the ship went down. “And does Rittenhouse mean anything to you?”

“I have no idea,” Agent West shook his head, and that was the end of that conversation.

               Nora’s time machine said she was in present day again, but they didn’t know where or why she was doing this. Ray put forth a theory that he’d been pondering. Establishments were so much more fragile in the past compared to the present. Take them out then and they wouldn’t be there now. She was effectively trying to rewrite history.

“It doesn’t make sense how she’d go from killing her parents to this,” Agent West sighed as he looked at Ray, Kendra, and Jax. “None of you are to speak a word about this to anyone outside this room. Ms. Darhk still has the Mothership. If she jumps again, we’ll call you in to go after her. Until then, go home and rest up.”

Ray nodded slowly, then went to go change into modern clothes and head home.

* * *

 

“Good news is you didn’t die,” Kuasa said as she snipped the thread from the last of the stitches. “Plus you have a scar now.”

Nora wordless nodded her thanks as the other woman left the room. Once she was gone, Nora got up from the chair and retrieved the journal from the pocket of the coat she’d been wearing. Cracking it open, she read over the next encounter she and Ray would have that he had written about in the book. Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, another horrible thing she’d have her hand in. If he didn’t already hate her after tonight, then he would after this one.

She didn’t understand how the entries changed the further she got into the book. There was a purpose to these despicable things, a good one. But as she did them on the opposite side of Ray, she didn’t understand how he would see her as anything else than a villain. If they were in each other’s places, that would be how she’d see him.

With a sigh, Nora flipped to the last pages of the book, coming across what she’d dubbed the impossible photograph. The one with her, Ray, and someone else.

She had seen that time could change and wondered if it would affect the photograph at some point.

* * *

 

               By the time he made it into the house, Ray was ready to pass out on the couch instead of walking up the stairs to his room. If Sydney wanted answers, then he would have to wait for them until the morning. Ray was way too tired to be answering anything right now. Besides, if he couldn’t tell his twin, then he’d need the night to concoct a good lie to satisfy him.

“Syd?” he yawned as he opened the door and walked inside. “I’m back!”

There was no response, so he tried again as he wandered towards the couch in the living room. “Sydney? Are you with Dad?”

“Hey, son.”

               Ray stiffened and turned towards the sound of the voice. His father was sitting on the other couch he’d intended to crash on, an open book in his hand. There were no breathing tubes, no IV attached to his arm. David Palmer looked perfectly healthy, not wasted away like he’d been when Ray left the house.

“Dad?” Ray breathed, feeling a spurt of alertness.

“What was all that yelling for when you came in?” David asked, standing up and going over to the teapot. “Want a cup?”

Ray was speechless. His dad was okay. His dad wasn’t sick.

“Ray,” David frowned at him as he poured himself a new cup of tea. “What’s wrong?”

“You’re okay.”

“Of course, I’m okay, you know that.”

Ray stepped forward and hugged his dad tightly for the first time in what felt like forever. When he’d been sick and frail, Ray had always felt so scared about crushing David. Now, he didn’t have to worry about that for once.

“Ray, what’s going on?” David asked, hugging him before pulling himself back. “Is something wrong?”

He shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. But I don’t get it…how did the Hindenburg do this? How are you okay now?”

“Ray, I’ve always been okay,” David shook his head. “You’re not making much sense though.”

“That doesn’t matter right now,” Ray grinned. “I’m really happy to see you, Dad.”

“Thanks, Ray. Did you bring that girl with you?”

Ray paused. “That girl?”

“Oh, you know I’m joking when I call her that. But is she around?”

“Uh…no, just me,” Ray covered quickly. “Where’s Sydney? Is he sleeping?”

Something flickered on David’s face before he frowned and shook his head again. “Raymond, you keep talking about this person. Who’s Sydney?”

All the air felt like it had gone out of his lungs. Ray searched his father’s face for any sign of amusement, but none was to be found. Not to mention that David was never prone to joking around very much as he had gotten older. A horrible feeling began to come over Ray as the unthinkable occurred to him.

“No,” Ray shook his head and backed up. “Sydney? This isn’t funny anymore!”

“Ray, hang on, what’s going on?”

He ignored his father as he caught sight of one of the photo frames. Ray bolted over to it and picked it up. Earlier that night, it had been him and Sydney at high school graduation with their father. Now it was just him and David.

But that was impossible. You couldn’t just erase a twin…could you?

Ray dropped the photograph back on the table like it had burned him. “This is wrong.”

“Ray, what are you talking about? I’m starting to get worried, son.”

Before Ray could answer, his phone started ringing. He’d never been so grateful for the distraction before. “Hello?”

“Dr. Palmer? We need you back here,” Agent West said on the other end. “The car’s turning around to pick you up. Ms. Darhk took out the Mothership again.”

“I’ll be ready. Where did she go?”

* * *

 

               Outside of the Palmer house, a young woman stood beside one of the lilac bushes in the backyard. She watched through the window as the younger of the two men inside grabbed a photograph before setting it back down quickly. He was arguing with the older man before picking up his phone to answer it. When he turned toward the window, she quickly moved to hide herself behind the leaves. Still, she could see the worry on his face shift into determination before hanging up.

               The woman peeked her head out of the bushes slightly, unable to stop herself from smiling a little. Ray Palmer was grabbing his coat inside and telling David Palmer that he’d have to go. He would be gone for hours, still chasing after Nora Darhk with Kendra Saunders and Jefferson Jackson. Soon, David would be out of the house. Once he was, she could sneak in and take the pictures of the documents that she needed.

Her parents would need the pictures of as many old Rittenhouse documents as they could get to fight the resurrected organization in her time.

**Author's Note:**

> Hopefully this was a good present. There was a plan to try and write the whole of the first season's Garcy moments as Darhkatom, but I ran out of time. However, it could still be a possibility in the future.


End file.
